While UK Lays Off Workers, Other Kentucky Schools So Far Have Not

The majority of the state's public universities are not following the University of Kentucky's lead in laying off a large number of employees to balance the budget. UK announced this week that 140 employees will be laid off and 160 unfilled positions will be eliminated.

But other public universities like Murray State and Eastern Kentucky aren't doing the same. Those schools are using hiring and pay freezes to deal with budget cuts from the state.

Western Kentucky has avoided layoffs while providing small raises for those employed full-time for at least one year.

The situation is less clear at the University of Louisville.

"We do not expect many faculty members at all to be let go, we expect most of the layoffs to come from staff members," says U of L spokesman Mark Hebert. U of L has asked individual deans and department heads to cut their spending. They could find ways to reduce expenses or they could let staff go. "Some of the deans and department heads will layoff two or three people and some of them will figure out a way to cut their budgets other than people," Hebert says, adding that about 20 layoffs are possible, few of them faculty members.

The majority of UK's layoffs will be in administration, not teaching faculty.